Friday, October 02, 2026 at 12:15 pm

JILA Sunrise Room

Mark Ivan Gabo Ugalino, University of Maryland

"Towards robust simulations of the galactic dynamo: revealing a tension between Eulerian and Lagrangian schemes"

Abstract:

Galactic magnetic fields are thought to be seeded by microscopic processes and amplified to the observed microgauss strengths over cosmic time. Much of this amplification likely occurs within the galactic disk, where turbulent and rotational kinetic energy is converted into magnetic energy via dynamo processes. However, two aspects of this process remain poorly constrained in simulations: the saturation level of the amplified field and the timescale on which it is reached. In this talk, I will present the first systematic numerical comparison of Eulerian and Lagrangian codes for galaxy formation employing diverse MHD schemes, including ART, RAMSES, AREPO, and SWIFT, using identical initial conditions for Milky Way-type galaxies. I will also introduce GRAD-MAP Code Lab, an education and outreach initiative that I currently co-lead, designed to provide advanced high school and undergraduate students with hands-on and self-paced coding education through accessible online resources.

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